This guide describes how to get an Apple Remote (A1294 silver model) to work in OSMC version 2018.08-2 (Kodi 17.6) for Raspberry Pi 3 model B+.
I bought a very cheap TSOP4838 IR receiver on eBay.
The IR receiver pins are (bulge facing you, pins down, from left): 1 - OUT, 2 - GND and 3 - Vs
The Raspberry Pi pins I used are: 01 - 3.3V, 06 - GND and 12 - GPIO18
Connect IR receiver pin 1 to RPi pin 12
Connect IR receiver pin 2 to RPi pin 06
Connect IR receiver pin 3 to RPi pin 01
Now edit the /boot/config.txt to enable and configure lirc (Linux Infrared Remote Control) :
$ cd /boot
$ sudo nano config.txt
Add as last line:
dtoverlay=lirc-rpi,gpio_in_pin=18
I think that can be simplified to dtoverlay=lirc-rpi as it seems that lirc_rpi auto-detects the IR receiver on GPIO18.
Activate the apple silver configuration:
$ cd /etc/lirc/
$ sudo rm lircd.conf
$ sudo ln -s apple-silver-A1294-lircd.conf lircd.conf
Now reboot
$ sudo reboot
The Apple Remote should now work with OSMC!
The steps below are not necessary, but could help you verify that everything works:
$ dmesg | grep lirc
[ 4.289234] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 244
[ 4.345142] lirc_rpi: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 5.411573] lirc_rpi: auto-detected active low receiver on GPIO pin 18
[ 5.411759] lirc_rpi lirc_rpi: lirc_dev: driver lirc_rpi registered at minor = 0
[ 5.411763] lirc_rpi: driver registered!
[ 5.666436] input: lircd as /devices/virtual/input/input0
$ sudo lsmod | grep lirc_rpi
lirc_rpi 16384 2
lirc_dev 20480 1 lirc_rpi
$ sudo ls -l /dev/lirc*
crw-rw---- 1 root video 244, 0 Nov 9 17:14 /dev/lirc0
$ sudo systemctl status lircd_helper@lirc0
* lircd_helper@lirc0.service - lircd remote support
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/lircd_helper@.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-11-09 18:43:34 CET; 9min ago
Process: 352 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c /var/run/lirc/lircd-lirc0.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 364 (lircd)
CGroup: /system.slice/system-lircd_helper.slice/lircd_helper@lirc0.service
`-364 /usr/sbin/lircd --driver=default --device=/dev/lirc0 --uinput --output=/var/run/lirc/lircd-lirc0 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc/lircd-lirc0.pid /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
$ irw
cf 0 KEY_PLAY linux-input-layer
cf 0 KEY_PLAY_UP linux-input-layer
1 0 KEY_ESC linux-input-layer
1 1 KEY_ESC linux-input-layer
1 0 KEY_ESC_UP linux-input-layer
160 0 KEY_OK linux-input-layer
160 0 KEY_OK_UP linux-input-layer
Regards
Mogens Beltoft
